Google joint founder Larry Page is hunkered down in Fiji's Mamanuca archipelago, switching between Tavarua and Namoutu islands, both of which he is rumored to own, reports said.
The billionaire, known for reclusive tendencies, has stayed mostly on the heart-shaped Tavarua island, two people who have seen him there in the past year told Business Insider.
While Fiji - a country of about 900,000 - has been closed to tourists during the pandemic, Page apparently entered the country through its special "Blue Lane" which offers passage to the ultrawealthy to get around Covid-19 travel restrictions.
Page and his wife, the scientist Lucinda Southworth, have been seen enjoying the tropical islands surfing on "traditional and electronic surfboards (hydrofoiling)," Beach Grit reported, citing sources.
Hydrofoiling is especially popular among the technology community. On July 4, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was seen hydrofoiling with a U.S. flag.
Reclusive Google co-founder Larry Page reportedly hiding out in Fiji https://t.co/6K0rDsOBP9 pic.twitter.com/2kDKh08InQ — New York Post (@nypost) July 24, 2021
On June 19, as Fiji grappled with its second wave of infections, the Fijian Broadcasting Co. News reported that Page dispatched his private jet back to the U.S. to pick up vaccines and donated other medical supplies to the government.
But a few days later, Fiji officials asked BCN to remove the story, saying the information should not be made public, Insider said, quoting sources with knowledge of the matter.
Page has essentially disappeared from the public eye since handing over the Alphabet chief executive role to Sundar Pichai in 2019.
Meanwhile, Nell Minow, vice chairperson of consulting company ValueEdge Advisors, said Page's hibernation to Fiji is "certainly unusual" and "not good corporate governance."
"You don't normally see someone who is still involved with the company hang a 'gone fishing' sign on the door and disappear," The New York Post quoted Minow as saying.
Page, along with joint founder Sergey Brin, still holds majority voting control of the company valued at around $1.8 trillion.
Page is the sixth-richest person in the world with a net worth of $117 billion, according to Forbes magazine.
